Locals recall Presley's final day, legacy

Elvis Presley may have succumbed to a heart attack in his Memphis bathroom at 42, but the legend survives.

From a U.S. postage stamp to Hollywood Walk of Fame, clocks, coffee mugs, and yes, velvet paintings. And, of course, there's Graceland, Presley's home that attracts 600,000 visitors annually.

And impersonators. Oh my, many, many impersonators.

Michael Bartle is one of them and the Marin County man has done Elvis longer than Elvis did Elvis. At least professionally. Now 51, Bartle started getting paid for promoting the prince of pompadours as a Santa Rosa High School student.

Bartle remembered going to the store for his mom when the store owner announced to everyone that Elvis died.

"I remember thinking that it never occurred to me that Elvis would die," Bartle said.

If Presley were alive today -- at 78 -- Bartle believed he would have "gotten tired of his health situation and would have become obsessed with being healthy and taking care of himself. And he would continue to record and perform."

Vallejo musician Bryan Girard and John Young, the morning man at KUIC in Vacaville for 15 years, disagreed.

"He'd be dead from over-consumption of everything," Girard said.

"Sadly, I believe Elvis would have followed the path of other iconic, over-managed, psychologically damaged individuals like Michael Jackson," said Young. "He would release new material sporadically, while sustaining himself on the money he made marketing his image and past. He would be revered and heavily in debt."

Young was visiting grandparents in Pasadena on that fateful day 36 years ago.

"I found his style of rock music goofy and boring," Young said. "As I became more of a student of music, I recognized the validity and primal grooves of songs like 'Hound Dog,' 'Jailhouse Rock' and 'Burning Love.' On some level, Elvis deserves some credit for bringing black R&B sounds to the conservative majority of America in the 1950s."

Johnny Colla, co-founder of Huey Lewis & The News, was living in Novato and playing with Sly Stone when he read about Elvis in the local paper.

"I wasn't the least bit surprised," said Colla, calling Presley "one of the greatest white front men of all times."

And if Elvis managed to elude his demons and trudge on?

"I'd like to think he would have cleaned up and become an evangelist," Colla said. "His spiritual recordings are some of his best records."

Al Marks, senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Vallejo, agreed, pointing out that Presley won two Grammys for gospel tunes.

"A lot of people don't know that," Marks said. "I think we might have seen him slip into doing more religious music."

Bass player Don Bassey, the Empress Theatre's general manager, was on a flight back from L.A. when the pilot delivered the news.

"I wish that he could have reversed his health problems and made music for his entire lifetime," Bassey said. "Think of Johnny Cash's last works. Incredible."

Fred Withrop, director of Verismo Opera in Vallejo, remembered the "utter shock by the entire world because of his youth" when Presley succumbed.

"If he had lived, I think he would have remained famous, and perhaps have become more so," Withrop said. "I liked Elvis and felt that he really kept the rock 'n roll generation alive."

"I was at the opening of the hotel and Peggy Lee was in the lounge and Barbra Streisand was in the showroom," Peterman said. "I was wandering the casino and I saw Elvis playing at the tables. I asked him for his autograph and complimented him on his suit."

Elvis immediately called his bodyguards over.

"He said, 'Tell them what you just told me.' I thought I was doomed," Peterman remembered. "But I said, 'I really like your suit.'"

Elvis turned to his security and said, "Thank you. I love it and they tease me about it all the time.'"

"I talked to him for quite a while and when the show broke the guards hustled to get him off the floor," Peterman said. "They took me along, too. There were mobs trying to get to him. He said that the hardest part of being famous and the part that made him the saddest was that he couldn't just talk to people."

When word got out that Presley died, "I remember being shocked and stunned," Peterman said. "It was like when Marilyn Monroe died. Somehow, we expect icons to live forever."

If Elvis survived, "after his 35th farewell tour, he would be driving a tour bust to Graceland," said Peterman.

Tim Zumwalt, publicist for the Vallejo Symphony, recalled hearing the grim announcement on the evening news.

"Probably Walker Cronkite," said Zumwalt. "There were a few grainy pictures and the cause of death was all presented as a mystery."

With the 1950s nostalgia, if Presley lived "he would have absolutely owned Las Vegas," said Zumwalt.

Mike Browne of the Vallejo Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he grew to like Presley "more as the years passed" though not a fan when The King of Rock 'n Roll lived.

"The real sadness were the pictures of him that surfaced that showed his age and weight gains," Browne said. "The other thing I remember were the jokes about how died, i.e., choking on a peanut butter and banana sandwich."

If Elvis lived, "he'd be doing duets with Mick Jagger," mused Browne.

Susan MacDonald, the driving force behind the Empress Theatre in Vallejo, was working in Vegas when Elvis died.

"I was staying at the Imperial Palace and noticed the lobby seemed quiet in spite of being packed with people checking in," MacDonald said. "I headed to the bar and noticed people were crying, some quiet in disbelief. I was the only one in the room unaware Elvis had died."

MacDonald saw Presley perform once -- at a local carnival before his fame.

"I remember watching those hips swivel in horror as everyone thought it was pornographic," MacDonald said.

Years later in October, 2001, MacDonald and her husband, Tim, renewed their vows at the Graceland Wedding Chapel.

"We were remarried by Elvis," she said.

As for the plethora of Elvis impersonators, "some are excellent, some mediocre, and some you want to say, 'Really? You really think you sound like him?" said Peterman.

"There is nothing like the original," said Withrop. "I don't care for impersonators, though they keep the legacy alive."

Impersonators "are very grave fellows who will be viewed in the future as a religious movement," Zumwalt said.

"Can you really have too many Elvis impersonators?" said Marks. "I don't think so. I think they're a hoot."